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East Asia’s Role in Global Social Innovation

China, Japan, and South Korea have been tremendously successful at growing their economies, which together account for roughly 20 percent of the world’s GDP. Can these same East Asian countries now be as successful at devising innovative ways to improve their societies?

This special supplement examines the different ways that social innovation is evolving in China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan, as a result of each country’s unique history, culture, and political-economic system.

The biggest news of 2016 would probably be
the British vote to leave the European Union
or Donald Trump’s election as America’s
45th president. Both events suggest that the
spread of Western-style liberal democracy—
alongside universal practices of free markets,
free trade, and open immigration—over the
past two decades has yet to become “the end
point of mankind’s ideological evolution,” as
Francis Fukuyama anticipated in 1992.2

Plainly, many in the West are no longer comfortable with accepted ideologies and institutions. Yet, as Lao Tzu reminds us,
moments of crisis like this are also opportunities. It is important
to acknowledge that globalization
has lifted hundreds of millions of
people—whether in developing or
developed countries—out of poverty.
However, the side effect is that it has
also delivered enormous benefits to
the wealthy, thus generating rising
inequality. In some places, the declining
working class that has been
left behind is turning to economic
nationalism and protectionism for
a quick fix.

Nevertheless, the world we are living in today is inextricably
interconnected—it is impossible to go back to the past. Furthermore,
issues such as climate change, energy shortages, and the aging society
that people face today are increasingly complex and—political positions
aside—demand new approaches to problem solving.

Social innovation—a concept that has captivated thinkers and
policymakers around the world in the 21st century—offers a potential
answer. As “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective,
efficient, sustainable, or just than present solutions,”3 social innovation
goes beyond “teaching a man to fish,” and instead (to continue the
analogy) aims to reform “the entire fishing industry” from its roots,
in the context of the diverse cultural and ideological circumstances
that we live in today. This is true around the world, and East Asia is
no exception.

Three major economies in East Asia—China, Japan, and South
Korea—account for roughly 20 percent of the world’s population and
20 percent of the world’s GDP. Generations of hard work and sacrifice
have made this region’s “economic miracle” a role model for many
other nations. Yet China, Japan, and South Korea share many of the
urgent social challenges that the rest of the world faces. These countries
must deal with aging societies, urbanization, air pollution, and
increasing income gaps between the wealthy and the rest of society.

But as we enter a new era of unpredictability, the question of social
innovation’s potential is becoming more urgent. Can East Asia become
an engine of social innovation? Can this region use social innovation
to become a responsible stakeholder
in a global order that promotes peace
and prosperity?

Taking social innovation in East Asia to the next level will require an active exchange of ideas and collective cross-sector impact throughout the region.

There are positive signs that the
answer is “Yes.” For example: Led
by mayor and former human rights
activist Park Won-soon, Seoul, a
megacity of 10 million people, is positioning
itself to be a model city in
the “sharing economy”4 by working
in partnership with civil society organizations
and private companies.
Early results are promising.

In Japan, impact investing from the private sector emerged quickly—
and effectively—to help those in need after the Great East Japan
Earthquake in 2011, as a response to the government’s failure to pursue
prompt reconstruction in disaster-stricken areas.

And the China Social Innovation Award, launched in 2010 by
Peking University and the Central Compilation & Translation Bureau
(a Communist Party think tank), is now an established and increasingly
well-known biannual event focused on identifying and encouraging
community-based innovation led by nonprofit organizations.

Yet despite the growing amount of resources devoted to social
innovation, the talent working in and drawn to the field, and the increased attention that the concept is receiving in East Asia,
few studies have explored how this region as a whole is adopting
and diffusing social innovation to solve problems. Here at Leping
Social Entrepreneur Foundation, we believe that there is a need
to expose East Asia’s social innovation practices to the world and
share successes (and failures), and that is why we have collaborated
with the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR) to publish this
supplement.

As a foundation established in China in 2010 with the mission
of empowering every underprivileged individual with equal growth
opportunities, Leping is committed to making a greater impact in
China as well as globally. Building upon 14 years of experience investing
in and working with social entrepreneurs
to help the most vulnerable
groups of people in China, such as
farmers and migrant children, Leping
sees itself as a social innovation catalyst
and market maker. We also strive
to disseminate knowledge about social
innovation in China and beyond
because we believe that doing so will
prove useful to others interested in
the field, whether they are social entrepreneurs,
philanthropists, governments,
or other stakeholders. To that end, in these pages we have
invited individuals working on the emerging frontiers of research and
innovation in the field to share their perspectives on social innovation
in their own countries.

This is by no mean a complete overview of the social innovation
landscape in China, South Korea, and Japan; instead, it is more of a
collection of snapshots of ongoing efforts to increase social impact
and improve lives in the region. However, we hope this initial effort
will lead to more open dialogues, collaborative learning, and in-depth
research on the topic.

What Have We Learned from Putting
Together This Supplement?

Articles in this supplement confirm that social innovation is an
emerging field that takes many different forms, whether it’s crowdfunding
for grassroots organizations led by an IT giant in China or
the first ISO standard for an elderly care management system in
Japan. Social innovation is a patient battle to move boundaries,
where success turns on the ability to integrate new efforts and approaches
into an existing context. And although all social innovation
efforts seek the same goal of better and happier lives, succeeding
requires a deep understanding of and respect for the culture and
value sets of each community and society in which the innovation
will be deployed. It also requires an entrepreneurial mind-set that
balances the need to “go slow”—to take time to build trust and longterm
relationships with the people—with the equally pressing desire
to “go fast” to solve problems and leverage opportunities.

The creativity and determination displayed by the social innovators
featured in the case studies in this supplement are inspiring and
encouraging—and speak to the need for complex solutions to solve
today’s complex social problems. Leping Foundation is proud to be
recognized as one of the leading forces fighting poverty in China. Over
the past 14 years, the foundation has nurtured five social enterprises,
including microfinance and vocational schools that have served more than 180,000 low-income people directly and have benefited more
than 500,000 people. At the same time, we know that even powerful
isolated efforts aren’t enough. Instead, what’s needed is a market for
social innovation where cross-sector players meet, get inspired, and
work together. Creating that market will require systematic approaches
and a new type of leadership that goes beyond “government-social
sector collaboration” or “nonprofit alliances” and is instead marked by
the ability to establish an ecosystem with stakeholders from all sides
in the pursuit of shared goals.

Social innovation in East Asia is not a simple process of replicating
trends from the West. A number of success stories from other nations
have fallen apart or yielded a very different result when brought to
this region. In order to ensure the success
of any effort, whether it is homegrown
or has roots and a proven track
record elsewhere, social entrepreneurs
must embrace a learning process
that recognizes and integrates
local culture and practice.

The use of information and communications
technologies (ICT) to
enable social innovation has become
mainstream across East Asia. Among
the many benefits of incorporating
ICT during the innovation process, perhaps the most important
in East Asia is the way in which ICT is engaging and empowering
the millennial generation to become the leading force for positive
change.

To ensure the success of any effort, social entrepreneurs must embrace a learning process that recognizes and integrates local culture and practice.

Innovations designed to meet emerging social challenges, such
as the aging society, have been shared and reproduced in the region
to an extent. However, this pattern of sharing and learning is still
very rare. East Asia lacks a common base of concepts, research, and
theories of positive social change that can fit its unique needs, culture,
and environments.

To help create and foster such a base, Leping cofounded the East
Asia Social Innovation Initiative (EASII) with partners in Japan and
Korea in 2014. EASII aspires to serve as an accountable research
body and network hub by working closely with leading cross-sector
organizations active in social innovation to develop new concepts,
benchmarks, and solutions to social investment and social innovation
challenges.

We also look forward to a continued collaborative relationship
with SSIR. Taking social innovation in East Asia to the next level will
require an active exchange of ideas and collective cross-sector impact
throughout the region, and we believe that EASII, SSIR, and other
forward-thinking forums are critical contributors to this process. With
their support, we are excited to see how social innovation in East Asia
will evolve in the coming years.

4 The terms “sharing economy,” “collaborative consumption,” and “peer economy” are often used interchangeably. In 2015, “sharing economy” was introduced into the Oxford English Dictionary as “an economic system in which assets or services are shared between private individuals, either free or for a fee, typically by means of the Internet.”

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